Our Speakers

Rosaria Butterfield

Rosaria Butterfield, a former tenured professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University, converted to Christ in what she describes as a train wreck. Her memoir, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith (Crown and Covenant, 2012), chronicles her conversion. Rosaria is married to Kent, a Reformed Presbyterian pastor in North Carolina. She is a mother, grandmother, author, and speaker.

Bishop Patrick Wooden

Bishop Patrick L. Wooden, Sr. is a soul stirring gospel preacher, and prolific visionary leader who is dedicated to excellence, holiness, and God’s truth. He has been saved and serving the Lord for over 47 years and has served as Senior Pastor of Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh NC for 38 years. In 2016 Bishop Wooden was consecrated Jurisdictional Bishop of North Carolina Third Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction where he oversees churches in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Nationally, Bishop Wooden serves as Co-Director of the Men’s Ministry in the Church of God in Christ.

Frank Turek

Dr. Frank Turek is a dynamic speaker and award-winning author or coauthor of five books: Hollywood Heroes How Your Favorite Movies Reveal God, Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to make their Case, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, Correct, Not Politically Correct and Legislating Morality. As the President of CrossExamined.org, Frank presents powerful and entertaining evidence for Christianity at churches, high schools, and secular college campuses that often begin hostile to his message. He has also debated several prominent atheists including Christopher Hitchens and Michael Shermer, Founding Publisher of Skeptic Magazine.

Katy Faust

Katy Faust is Founder and President of Them Before Us, a global movement defending children’s right to their mother and father. She publishes, speaks and testifies widely on why marriage and family are matters of justice for children. Her articles have appeared in outlets including Newsweek, USA Today, Fox News, The Federalist, Public Discourse, WORLD Magazine, the Daily Wire, First Things, and the Blaze. She is on the advisory board for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. She detailed her philosophy of worldview transmission in her book, Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City. Her third book, Pro-Child Politics was published September 2024. She is spearheading Greater Than which aims to retake legal marriage on behalf of children. She and her husband have raised their four children in Seattle.

Aaron Baer

Dr. Joshua Wilsey

Dr. John Wilsey is Professor of Church History and Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Church History and Historical Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to coming to Southern, Wilsey taught elementary, middle, and high school students in history and Bible for eleven years in North Carolina and Virginia. He also has served Southern Baptist churches, as an associate pastor in Charlottesville, Virginia for eight years and interim pastor for three years in Spring, Texas. Between 2011 and 2017, he taught history and philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, with most of his teaching load in a fully accredited baccalaureate program in a maximum-security unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.Dr. Wilsey’s primary areas of teaching at Southern Seminary and Boyce College are in modern church history, history of Western thought, and American history. He supervises PhD dissertations in the areas of American church history and history of philosophy.Wilsey has produced peer-reviewed pieces in the journal Religions and in academic books published by Palgrave and Routledge. He has contributed other chapters to books published by Crossway and B&H Academic as well as long-form articles to Modern Age: A Conservative Review and Fides et Historia. He has served as manuscript reviewer for American Political Thought, Religions, InterVarsity Press, and New York University Press. He has also served as book review editor for H-AmRel of the H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online network and The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.

Les Bernal

Les is the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a 501c3 non-profit advocacy network of individuals and partner groups from all political stripes with members in all 50 states and its mission is to reveal the truth behind gambling operators to prevent more victims. He has been National Director since 2008 when the national network grew into the organization of Stop Predatory Gambling.Les has spoken and written extensively about commercialized gambling operators and their business practices, including regional casinos, state lotteries, online gambling, and commercialized sports betting. He has testified before Congress and more than thirty state legislatures. He has been cited by more than 700 newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. He has appeared on national television and radio including 60 Minutes, PBS NewsHour, CNN, Fox News Channel, National Public Radio, CNBC, The BBC, and MSNBC.  He has also spoken before more than 1000 business organizations, college audiences and faith groups across the nation.Prior to joining Stop Predatory Gambling, Les served as a Chief of Staff in the Massachusetts State Senate and worked as a campaign strategist for more than forty federal and state campaigns. He is also a former high school and college men’s basketball coach, founder of the Robert Frost Foundation in Lawrence, Massachusetts- the hometown of America’s favorite poet – and a past chairman of the city’s Planning Board. He is a member of St. Patrick Parish, a Roman Catholic community in Lawrence.

Keith Coe

Keith Coe is the founder of an AI advisory and implementation firm that helps businesses modernize operations, streamline workflows, and unlock value from their data through practical AI solutions. With more than 25 years of experience building and scaling companies, Keith works with business owners and executive teams to identify real-world applications for AI that improve efficiency, decision-making, and growth.His work includes AI workflow automation, business intelligence dashboards, operational strategy, and custom software solutions across multiple industries. Known for translating complex technology into practical business outcomes, Keith focuses on helping organizations move beyond the hype and implement AI in ways that create measurable impact.Based on California’s Central Coast, Keith advises companies nationwide on AI strategy, automation, and operational transformation.

Douglas Napier

Douglas Napier is the Executive Chairman & CEO of 1792 Exchange, a non-profit organization focused on influencing corporate behavior to protect freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and free enterprise. He has over 30 years of professional life engaged in law, business, real estate development, executive leadership, training, international relations, public policy, issue advocacy, healthcare, hospitality, media engagement, and coalition building.Douglas has been a partner in a private law firm, a senior executive and senior legal counsel for an international non-profit organization, and served as president of an Arizona residential real estate company.

Patrick Wathen

Patrick Wathen is the President of Equity Commercial Real Estate Solutions. His experience is primarily in the retail and healthcare sectors of real estate. In addition to fund management experience, he has significant experience in commercial real estate leasing and sales. For more than 10 years, he has been the leader of a market analysis and tenant representation team with a specific focus on serving the needs of private equity portfolio companies. Patrick has completed hundreds of transactions and has worked in 40 of the top 50 cities. Through his efforts, Equity has been involved in nearly 10 percent of all new urgent care centers that have opened nationally in recent years. It is this leadership and management of multifaceted processes that provides Patrick with the experience critical to his role with EVF. With a focus on conservative underwriting, Patrick’s primary goal as manager is to deliver superior risk adjusted returns to EVF III investors. Doing so will nurture long-term relationships as EVF consistently allows for both preservation and growth of investor capital.

Kara Wente

Kara B. Wente is the Director of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth (DCY). Kara has spent her career advocating for children. Before being nominated to lead DCY, she served as the Director of the Governor’s Children’s Initiative and was the Chief Operating Officer for Future Ready Columbus. With more than 20 years in dedicated state service, Kara has extensive experience in serving the most vulnerable children and families in Ohio.

Dr. Matthew Spalding

Matthew Spalding is the Kirby Professor in Constitutional Government and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College and oversees the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship at Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus. His new book, The Making of the American Mind: The Making of Our Declaration of Independence, was released in December 2025. Spalding is also the best-selling author of We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future and the original executive editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, the first line-by-line analysis of each clause of the U.S. Constitution.

David Mahan

Todd Marrah

Valerie Jones

Dave Arrell

Peter Range